SIXTEEN YEARS AGO
Blood.
Marenda ran with fear in her throat, and determination as her only motivation to make it to the finishing line.
The people chasing her had taken so much from her, and in turn, they had left too little.
As she got to the precipice, everything failed her; both the spells she could attempt to summon, and even the portalling spell that had brought her that far past the barren lands of Vale, it's fired scorged the Empty Lands, and finally, past its terrifying borders.
They had taken so much from her, that even the clothes she had on were pieces of rags that barely hung to her tiny waist. Her stomach was exposed, and with it was the painful evidence and horrid reminder of what she had lost there.
Her child.
Another spell from her pursuers zapped for her, and she dodged. But not quick enough as it sliced at waist, causing the remaining rags hanging on her waist to fall down.